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Pig Cop Tank
The Pig Cop Tank (also known as the Riot Tank) is an enemy in Duke Nukem 3D. It was introduced in the Atomic Edition of the game, and is only in the episodes The Birth and Alien World Order. It is first encountered in the second level of The Birth, Duke-Burger. It is considered to be the most dangerous enemy after the enemy bosses and the Mini Battlelord. Description The Pig Cop Tank is the natural counterpart to the Recon Patrol Vehicle. While the RPV is fast and maneuverable, the Pig Cop Tank is slow and clumsy. It is a land-based vehicle, and has a lot more fire-power than the RPV to make up for its comparatively poor agility. It is heavily armored, so it can take a lot of damage. When it is destroyed, there is a 50% chance that its driver will escape unharmed. As the vehicle's name suggests, its driver is a Pig Cop, whose shoulders and head can be seen. A notable feature of the Pig Cop Tank, aside from its devastating weaponry and armoring, is the button on its back. It is a self-destruct button, and allows a sure-fire and simple way of destroying it (provided one can quickly get close enough to press it). Appearance The Pig Cop Tank is a small armored vehicle designed for one occupant. Its main body is a frustum shape (a pyramid with the top cut off), with parallel sides, and is colored green. It is supported by two large caterpillar tracks, one per side. Mounted on either side of the main body are two gun turrets, known as the Side Guns. It also has two, white, rectangular headlights on the left/right sides of the tank. At the front of the body is a large viewing window through which the driver's face can be seen, and below it is the "L.A.R.D." slogan in yellow. On the back of the Pig Cop Tank is a small red and white circular switch of the same design as the level exit Nuke buttons. The driver is a specially trained Pig Cop. Combat analysis The Pig Cop Tank is a fearsome opponent. It is strong enough to withstand most assaults, and comes equipped with three forms of weaponry. Being mechanical in nature, it cannot be shrunk by the Shrink Ray. However, it is slow-moving and fairly slow to rotate. But even so, its high offensive and defensive capabilities make it one of the most dangerous and feared enemies in the game (except Bosses, and rivalling Mini Battlelords), and certainly the most dangerous Pig Cop-related enemy. Its first and primary weapon are the Side Guns, which fire fast barrages of bullets. Its secondary weapon is the long-range Mortar Launcher, which fires a grenade that deals a large amount of damage. The third ones are lasers. It nearly always uses its primary weapon, uses its secondary weapon if Duke is too far. The lasers are rarely used and are red in color; They are not well-known. The Pig Cop Tank can be destroyed without firing a single shot. On its back is a circular switch that looks like a level exit Nuke button. This is the vehicle's self-destruct button. It is activated by pressing it, just like using a level exit Nuke button. After hitting it, a countdown of a couple of seconds is initiated, accompanied by frantic beeping. The Tank will then explode, regardless of any damage it may have taken beforehand. This explosion deals some damage. It is difficult, however, to get to the back of the Tank to press the self-destruct and, particularly if the player encounters the Tank from a distance, it may just be easier to shoot at it until it explodes instead of trying to close the distance (with it constantly firing at you, most likely). Regardless, it is an odd design choice to put the self-destruct button on the outside of the vehicle. When a Pig Cop Tank is destroyed, its driver may be killed along with it, but not always - if it survives, it will be a regular Pig Cop at full health. Contrary to the tank, when a RPV is destroyed, the Pig Cop pilot will always survive with full health to battle the player. Most weapons are either ineffective or impractical to use against the Pig Cop Tank. The best choice would be either the RPG (3 rockets) or the Shotgun (6 shots). Any other weapon would require a lot of ammo to defeat it. Data |} |valign=top| |} |valign=top| |- | |- | |} |} The Pig Cop Tank in other games * The Pig Cop Tank does not appear in any of the console ports except the Xbox Live Arcade version. Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown, Duke Nukem 64 and [[Duke Nukem 3D (Sega Saturn)|the Sega Saturn port]] do not include the episode The Birth. ** Duke Nukem 64 has rearranged several episodes, and includes some of the levels from The Birth. However, the Pig Cop Tank is still absent. ** The Pig Cop Tank makes a comeback in Duke Nukem Forever. However, it only appears once at one of the dam stages. It can also be seen in the games intro where Duke is shown shooting the Pig Cop in the tank. Trivia * The Pig Cop Tank cannot be shrunk by the Shrink Ray. * In the art files of Duke Nukem 3D there appears an unused set of sprites of what appears to be an alternate version of the Pig Cop Tank. This alternate version has been unofficially dubbed the Scorpion Tank due to its resemblance to the animal. It is considered to be either a prototype of the Pig Cop Tank or an additional enemy that was abandoned during development. * In the add-on Duke Xtreme, if the silenced Pistol is enabled, the Pig Cop Tank's side gun bullet attack will emit the same sound as the silenced Pistol. This is due to the fact that both of them use the same link for the sound. See also * Pig Cop * Scorpion Tank Category:DN3D Enemies